Wet, but not wet enough!

August should be a lot wetter than this! I know everyone (including me) likes nice sunny days, but we do actually need rain to live! I took a walk at the Bang Wad reservoir this week and the water level is certainly a bit low. I measured no rain for the first 8 days of August, and since then a total of 27mm in the last week. That's not much! The monthly average for August is over 300mm (see Phuket Rain Averages). The driest August I have on record (measurements since 1998) is 89mm which was in 2005, which was also the driest year I have on record (1998 - 2010). So will 2011 be really dry? Or will the rains come sometime soon? Easy to be selfish about the weather.. I'll be on holiday for a couple of weeks from the end of September, and planning trips to Khao Sok National Park, Raya Island, and the Phuket Vegetarian Festival is on.. so I would like a couple of fairly dry weeks then.

I should update this Phuket weather blog a little more often, but don't like to post mini updates like "today was nice".. there is a better place for that kind of update - TWITTER - you can follow me on Twitter @jamiemonk for weather updates, news, Phuket related things.

Some Tweets from the last week:

9th August Is it going to be another sunny day in Phuket? Rather cloudy right now.. could we get some rain? No rain so far in August!

10th August Big Phuket weather news! I measured 2mm of rain last night! First rain of August.

11th August Actually had some rain this morning and more than a few drips too.. still hot though and the sun was out this morning too. Now rather grey.

12th August Not sunny.. makes a nice change! Everyone was complaining that it's been so hot. Today certainly cooler.

13th August Sun and rain today in Phuket. Hardly any wind, was raining in Phuket Town but sunny on the west coast.

15th August Phuket weather today .. one of those sunny, no hang on it's looking a bit dark, ooh sunny again, rain? ah, sunny again... kind of days.

Hoping for a sunny afternoon, I'd like to visit the Karon Temple market today, it's on every Tuesday. And tomorrow evening, please no rain! The "Por Tor" festival is going on in Phuket Town (Chinese Hungry Ghost festival) and I'm going to have a look on a guided tour with Phuket Heritage Trails.